Surrendering to Us (10 page)

“We have a camp up there. I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind if we went up for a weekend and used it.” I was still trying to plan the trip with my friends, and that was still proving to be impossible.

“And maybe we could take your parents with us. Get Walter out of the office for some relaxation,” Lucah said, and I was pissed that I hadn’t thought of it first.

“I love you,” I said, leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“I know,” he said with a satisfied grin as he hit the accelerator and we flew along the highway.

While Lucah drove, I looked on my phone for a place to stop to get some presents, and I found a little candy shop off the highway, so Lucah took the exit.

“I’m pretty sure you’re going to pass me as their favorite person ever,” Lucah said as we walked into what looked like Willy Wonka’s wet dream. Floor to ceiling walls of candy containers, all in colors so bright they almost hurt your eyes.

“Is this what heaven looks like?” I said, still staring.

“God, I hope so,” Lucah said, his eyes as big as mine. “Come on.” He grabbed a basket for himself and one for me.

“Ready?” He crouched down as if he was a runner, getting ready at the starting gate. Oh was that how this was gonna go? I crouched down next to him and put on my best competitive face. I had no idea what we were racing for, or how we would determine a winner, but that didn’t matter because, well, CANDY.

“Set,” I said.

“GO!” We yelled at the same time, startling some of the other customers, but I took off and headed right for the jellybeans at the back and Lucah went for the chocolate on the right wall. I grabbed a bag and started filling it with my favorite flavors, including buttered popcorn and toasted marshmallow. I had the feeling Lucah would like those, given his love of s’mores. I filled several bags and then moved to the gummies. Sharks, bears, worms, octopi, even ones shaped like some of the presidents. I looked at my haul and I didn’t even want to begin to figure out how many calories and grams of sugar were in this one basket. I looked around and found Lucah. The red hair was easy to spot.

I snuck up behind him and poked him in the ribs.

“Hey, what have you got?” He turned and the grin on his face was similar to the one that he’d had when he showed me his car. I’d have to add that to the list of Things That Make Lucah Giddy.

“They have these.” He held up what appeared to be two graham crackers with a marshmallow in between that had been dipped in chocolate.

“I also got chocolate and toasted marshmallow jellybeans.” I pointed to the bag. Lucah put his basket down and held my face in both hands.

“I love you.”

“I know.”

We ended up having to get a third basket, because I knew Sloane would be very upset with me if I didn’t bring something back for her, so I got some mango jellybeans and some gourmet chocolate from Switzerland.

“We definitely shouldn’t eat any of this in the car,” Lucah said with a serious face after we’d checked out.

“No. We should save it.” We put the bags on the backseat and stared at them for a minute.

“Fuck that,” we both said at the same time. I went for the chocolate covered potato chips and Lucah grabbed three of the s’mores bars.

We drove the rest of the way trading bites back and forth and licking the chocolate from each other’s fingers as my music played and we argued about which song we should listen to. Lucah pulled off the highway and drove down tree-lined streets and past homes that were definitely built recently. People biked on the sidewalks, kids played kickball in a few of the backyards and everything was bright and shiny and new. It was fucking Mayberry.

“Wow, this is really nice.”

“Yeah, it kind of freaks me out a bit coming here. This is one of those towns that you see on the news and everyone says that nothing bad could ever happen there, and then you find out there’s a serial killer or a meth lab or something.” He shook his head and turned onto a side street.

“Pessimistic much?”

“It’s been my experience that places like this are ideal for hiding things. But it’s not my choice to live here, and the schools are good, I guess, and there aren’t any sex offenders.”

“How do you know there aren’t any sex offenders?”

“Because I checked. I also checked to make sure there weren’t any convicted criminals. Tate asked me to, but don’t mention anything about it. April doesn’t know.” Was it possible for something to be both creepy and sweet at the same time? Because that was. If he was that protective of his nieces, I couldn’t imagine how protective he’d be over his own children.

Our children. Whoa. That was a thought I was not ready to think. Not even close. Go away, baby thoughts! I did joke about having his ginger babies, but that was just for fun. I wasn’t serious about it . . .

“We’re here,” he said, pulling into the driveway of one of the houses. I had to be honest, it looked pretty much like all the others, except for the two pink bicycles in the yard, and the trampoline. Lucah turned Bluebird off and got out. And I started to panic.

The front door burst open and two little screaming girls emerged, hair flying behind them as they threw themselves at Lucah and he caught both of them, twirling around as they shrieked.

I got out and braced myself on the car for a minute as I walked around to join them. Lucah had tossed both girls down on the ground and was tickling them into submission.

“Hey, hey,” he said, pulling them up. I remembered that Gracie was four and Fiona was two. Gracie hadn’t gotten the red hair gene (her hair was dark), but Fiona had a mop of bright red curls that tumbled in her eyes. They stared up at me with wide eyes as if I was some sort of alien invader.

“This is my friend Rory. Can you say hello?” Two seconds ago they were screaming, but now it they’d swallowed their voices.

“Hi, it’s so nice to meet you,” I said, crouching down. Gracie sort of glared at me from under her dark bangs. I nearly gasped because her eyes were almost exactly like Lucah’s. Fiona was more curious and moved forward.

“Rory?” she said in her sweet little voice.

“Yup, this is Rory. Can you give her a hug?” Lucah said, pushing her forward. Fiona put her little arms around my neck and then she pulled back and smacked a kiss on my cheek.

“Rory,” she said, resting her head on my shoulder.

“Are you going to be a grump, or are you going to say hello?” Fiona was whispering my name in my ear and patting my back as a man who could only be Tate walked out of the house, followed by a woman with dark hair who wasn’t much taller than I was.

“Looks like Fi has a new friend,” Tate said. Yup. He was definitely a Blythe. Unlike Lucah and Ryder, however, his hair shaded toward blonde, and he wasn’t as tall or as bulky as Ryder. He also had glasses and a little bit more of a nerdy vibe. He leaned down and stroked Fiona’s hair.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Rory. We’ve heard a lot about you.” People always say that when you meet them, and it always gave me a sense of dread. I had no idea what Lucah could have told them. Tate crouched down as well, and so did April. We were all on kid level.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said putting out my hand and he shook it. April came over and whispered in Gracie’s ear.

“Hi Rory, so nice to meet you.” I shook hands with April as well, and Gracie was the last holdout.

“You know, Gracie girl, if you’re real nice to Rory, I bet she’ll let you play with her hair.” I smiled, like this prospect was exciting. In reality, imagining those chubby little fingers pulling at my hair was a bit horrifying.

“Hi,” Gracie finally said with a little wave.

“Hi, Gracie.” I waved back. “I brought you something. Do you want to see it?” The prospect of presents made her eyes light up.

“Go with Rory and see what she brought you,” April said, pushing Gracie toward me. Lucah picked Fiona up and Gracie took my hand and I opened the door of the car.

“I didn’t wrap it—” I started to say, but Gracie dove for the bags.

“Candy, candy, candy!”

Mayhem ensued. Gracie and Fiona both went for the bags, some of which weren’t for them, but for Sloane, and all four adults tried to get them under control without a meltdown, and I ended up apologizing a million times for bringing candy.

Oh, there were tears and carrying on and I was freaking out and wishing Lucah had talked me out of the candy idea.

Somehow, Tate and April got the two now-sobbing girls to give up most of the candy and only keep a small bag of jellybeans and gummy presidents each.

“They’ll forget about it in about ten minutes. Their memories are pretty short,” Lucah said in my ear. “Trust me.”

We all went toward the house and I prayed that I wouldn’t screw anything else up.

“I’m really very sorry about that,” I said as Lucah closed the door behind me.

“It’s not your fault, I assure you. Both of them are overdue for their naps, but they wanted to stay up and see Unkie Lu.” Unkie Lu? I gave him a look and he shrugged.

“It’s hard to say Uncle Lucah.”

The house was gorgeous, and it was clear whoever had decorated it liked the finer things. Or at least they had, but then children had taken over. The banister was covered in fingerprints and what looked like paint, there were toys and clothing items and more socks than I could count strewn about as if someone had taken them and thrown them into the air.

“Uh yeah. Sorry about the mess. It was clean five minutes ago,” April said sheepishly.

“No, no. Your house is lovely.”

“It used to be. But that’s what happens when these little monsters come along. They kind of take over your life and your space and your sanity.” April grinned at me. I laughed nervously. I hoped she was joking.

The sounds of crying stopped and Tate brought both the girls back out. To the left of the entry was the living room, and on the right was a formal dining room with a table covered in coloring books and stuffed animals.

“See? No permanent damage done. Can we get you something? Water? Glass of wine?” Dear God, could I use a glass of wine. But I didn’t want to look like a lush, so I asked for water with ice. Lucah had the same.

“Lucah’s told us so much about you, I feel like we’ve already met,” April said as she set the girls up on the floor with a box of crayons and two coloring books.

Well, I couldn’t really say the same. Lucah was very close-mouthed about his family.

“Good things, I hope.” I looked at Lucah and he gave me a face of feigned innocence. “They better be good things.” I glared at him, and he put his arm around me and kissed the side of my face.

“Don’t be so paranoid.”

I couldn’t help it. I sipped my water and prayed for someone to say something else that would start a conversation I could excel at.

“Well, you seem to know about me, but Lucah hasn’t been as forthcoming about you. Except for the girls. He talks about them all the time.” Said girls were wrestling each other over a crayon. April broke up the fight by taking the crayon and breaking it in half, giving one to each. Like King Solomon, only in this case she’d actually cut the baby in half. Or the crayon.

Tate and April both laughed. I was missing the joke. I glanced at Lucah and his ears were getting red.

“We’re just surprised he told you anything at all. He’s not exactly forthcoming with anyone,” Tate said. “Not an open book, are you?” He slapped Lucah on the knee. “He’s always been like that, though. Even when we were kids.”

I couldn’t really imagine Lucah as a child. I was kind of hoping that childhood photos would make an appearance sometime during this visit.

“Well, he put up quite a fight,” I said.

“I had to. It was my job.” That made Tate laugh again.

“He used to pretend to be a spy growing up. He would invent an alias and a personality and refuse to answer to anything else. I think a lot of parents would have told him to stop pretending, but Mom and Dad always went along with it. Even that time when you were a doctor. What was your name again?”

“Dr. Harold Oglethorpe,” Lucah said. His arm tensed around my shoulder. Now he was the one stressing.

Tate shook his head, smiling. There was definitely an older brother/younger brother dynamic going on here.